Wwmd

WWMD What Will Mancini Do? Elaine Mancini, Boardman township trustee, is finding out that "1" is, indeed, the lonliest number if you're a politician. Since January, she has been the odd woman out in the three-woman board of trustees. Her two colleagues, Kathy Miller and Robyn Gallitto, have joined forces on major issues in the same way as Mancini and former Trustee Thomas Costello joined together in keeping Miller out in the cold.

Costello lost to Gallitto, who ran on a platform of changing the way township government was run and blasting her opponent and Mrs. Mancini for not being more punishing with Administrator Curt Seditz. Last year, Seditz was convicted of driving under the influence, the second in five years. Not only was Seditz allowed to keep his job, but he was granted a 4 percent pay raise for this year.

Gallitto's election was viewed as a vindication of her campaign and a signal from the voters to move quickly to keep the promises she had made. Thus, in her first meeting of this year, Gallitto made a motion to rescind Seditz's pay increase. Miller voted in favor; Mancini was opposed.

Then last Friday, Miller made a motion to terminate Seditz without cause, thus giving him six months' severance pay; Gallitto seconded it. Mancini voted no.

Thus, with her main ally in township government gone, what will Mancini do?

She can grin and bear the pain of now being a follower instead of a leader, or she can call it quits and then run when the term of the office is up as a victim of a conspiracy by Miller and Gallitto.

Or, she can hold out an olive branch to her colleagues for the good of the township. (Don't bet on this one.)